


When I Win

by nightmoonz



Category: Shades of Magic - V. E. Schwab
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Fluff and Smut, I'm Going to Hell, I'm Sorry, M/M, Multi, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, Unresolved Tension, one shot for now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-10
Updated: 2017-12-10
Packaged: 2019-02-13 00:36:11
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12971853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nightmoonz/pseuds/nightmoonz
Summary: In a London where the setting is Modern Day and Osauron never reigned:Lila and Holland decide to make a not so secretive bet in which the winner "gets claim" over Kell.Kell, of course, finds out about it and as you can imagine he's not too pleased. After listening to some very helpful advice from a very unlikely source, Kell decides to throw a wrench in their plans by entering himself into their bet





	When I Win

**Author's Note:**

  * For [valkyrierising](https://archiveofourown.org/users/valkyrierising/gifts).



> First off I want to say Hi to my wonderful Yuletide buddy!
> 
> I really hope you like this, I'm sorry it didn't follow your prompt which is why I wrote you "The Antari of Love, The Antari of Strength, and The Antari of Life". <3
> 
> I wish you the happiest of holidays and a very happy New Year. =^__^=
> 
> Secondly, I want to give a huge thank you to my friend Traincat. I could not have had the confidence posting with without her, so I'm going to shamelessly signal boost her and her work. She is an exceptional writer and Definitely check out her fic “The Spider Prince and the Morning Star” for the Spideytorch fandom

** Holland and Lila **

 

Holland was very unhappy about Lila being the center of attention especially when it came to Kell. 

 

 

Why on this blasted Earth did this ridiculous redhead like Lila at all? While Holland claimed indifference to the issue, it infuriated him to no end. The reason for this was because Holland stubbornly refused to admit being absolutely besotted with the man.

Holland had been irritated by Kell’s mere existence since they were young. Kell had always tried to tag along, and by all the magical forces that be… what a pain it had been. It was clear that Kell wanted to be a student of sorts to Holland, but Holland would not have it. Holland had to figure everything out on his own, including their sort of sorcery. Therefore Kell could too, so Holland would continuously brush Kell aside dismissing the hurt in the young boy’s eyes. Kell would never say anything after being chastised by Holland so when finally Kell started talking back to him it was startling.

At first, it had made Holland even more irritated, but then he began to find Kell’s retorts. They were insanely witty, and it was kind of funny, like a game they played. Holland realized far too late that he had taken it too far the day Kell stopped responding. It wasn’t like when they were young, and Kell would just take it. No, it was different, Kell intentionally stopped reacting to anything Holland said or did. He stopped paying attention altogether, and when he would respond, it was clear he was annoyed with Holland. Somedays it was worse, much worse. Somedays it was clear that Kell was just bored, bored of their games, bored of Holland. But Holland didn’t care, right? It was only hurtfulbecause it was a bruise to his ego. It absolutely had nothing to do with the fact that he missed Kell; just who did Kell Maresh think he was anyway?

_‘And there he is right now!’_ Holland shrieked internally.

_‘Flirting with Barron’s niece Lila, like it was no big deal—It isn’t a big deal!’_ Holland chastised himself. He was angry because it should not have mattered to him at all, but he was running out of excuses as to why it did.

 

 

Miss Delila Bard wasn’t doing much better. 

 

She was getting pretty sick and tired of Holland always skulking about, or eyeing Kell. At first, she thought it was funny, but it had lost its appeal quickly. She didn’t know how deep his feelings were for Kell, but Holland had his chance. Kell was hers now, and Holland needed to stop brooding about it. 

Kell had mentioned he had fleeting crushes here are there but he also admitted to having one serious and one-sided love from his past. When she had guessed Holland, the color of Kell’s cheeks gave him away. She felt jealous, but then she saw the look in Kell’s eyes and the way he murmured, ‘nothing happened,’ tugged at her heart. He clearly hadn’t said that to just soothe her ego, clearly whatever Holland did, or didn’t do hurt Kell. And as if that weren’t enough to hate him, he was always giving her a hard time and then getting Barron involved. It was infuriating and she’d had enough. She was done biting her tongue, and this time when he would sigh his pathetic, woe-as-me—glum sigh. She would put an end to it, today.

As fate would have it, she didn’t have to wait long today, he made “the sigh” in record-breaking time.Once Kell had said his goodbyes and walked out of Barron’s Cafe-Bar the Stone's Throw addressed Holland as disdainfully as possible.

“Okay Holland, what now?”

“Excuse me?" He drawled, "I have no idea what you are referring to.” Holland asked not even looking up at the glass he was cleaning. Lila took the glass out of his hands and put it up on the bar. 

“Look, I’m done with your, thinly veiled sulking bullshit pity party. Kell doesn’t need it around him either, so I’ve come up with a solution. Care to make a wager Holland?” She said with a grounded authority. 

“Ugh, Are you still speaking? And in any case, why would I want to engage in such behavior like gambling with the likes of you, Bard?” he asked, having been bored of the conversation before it even started. 

_’Stubborn Bastard.’_ Lila muttered under her breath before she continued, “Because of the stakes.” She said with a cat like grin. 

“Oh, really?” He gave a humorless laugh, but curiosity sent his mind reeling, “And what pray tell are the terms of this bet?” 

“Winner gets Kell.” She said bluntly, causing Holland to snap his head to face her full on. He was so thoroughly stunned at her words that it took him a moment to fully regain his composure from stupidly blinking at her with his mouth slightly agape.  

“The Loser has to stop brooding over the fact that _he_ is jealous over Kell spending time with _me._ ” She said pointedly. 

He didn’t want to be intrigued by the terms, but he was. A shot at having Kell? ‘ _Well now,’_ He thought, ‘ _that could be interesting, but—No! That would be having to cope to that Holland had some sort of feelings for Kell—Maresh.’_ And if there was one thing Holland really didn’t want to admit to it was anything having to do with his feelings about Kell. How he had grown to love Kell’s mop of red hair or the way he smiled like he always had some secret no one would ever know. There was one thing that bothered him though, how dare she assume she would beat him in this bet.  

“Oh, you’re on Bard, so how would this work?”

“Simple, whoever gets Kell into bed before Christmas wins.”

Holland smirked, “Deal.” 

They went on with their work like usual not thinking about the consequences of Kell finding out about their bet, and unfortunately, for them, they hadn’t thought to keep their voices down. Especially when the younger Maresh brother had been listening—hanging onto every word—along with his adoring boyfriend and Kell’s least favorite person, Alucard Emery. 

Once they heard about all of the bet they left abruptly to warn what would be a very disgruntled Red Head. 

 

~~~~

 

** Kell **

 

Kell was done. 

Oh so very, _very_ done. Done with the bickering. Done with the shenanigans, and even more so done with their bullshit. 

The worst thing was he had heard it from Rhy.  

It would have been one thing if the story had come from Alucard, but Rhy? No, he would never make anything like that up. The Maresh boys would love to tease each other every now and again, but this was something else. Rhy wouldn’t toy with Kell, not with something like this, which begged the question, what the hell did Holland and Lila think they were doing?  

The whole thing was starting to give him a headache, and what was even more frustrating was Kell being a “prize”.  

“What the fuck is that about then?” he fumed. He didn’t like that he was being treated as some sort of trophy for them. For crying out loud, he was—is a person! To make matters worse he grudgingly he had to thank Alucard for urging Rhy to tell him about this madness as soon as humanly possible. 

At least Kell could have the element of surprise and turn the tables on them.

“Well, do you want to know what I think?” Alucard hummed, putting an arm around Rhy which on a normal day would irritate the hell out of Kell, but today? Today it practically sent him over the edge.

“What Emery? What do you think?” he asked in earnest albeit irritated. He realized right after he asked that his tone came out terser than he had meant. So basically it came across as Kell was taking it out on Alucard. Not a great start, but luckily he saw Rhy’s warning look and continued on, “Sorry Alucard, I’m genuinely asking, it’s just. This whole situation is frustrating and I know we don’t have a great history together but I don’t mean to take it out on you.”

The two of them looked gobsmacked which made Kell have to suppress a smirk. At least he could mark this under a small victory for the day, he managed to shock Alucard while pleasantly surprising Rhy. If he were being honest he was just feeling a little sorry for himself, but at least he a) made Rhy smile, and b) he gets to kill Alucard with kindness forcing him to be nice to Kell, Alucard’s least favorite thing. Poor Rhy, how he longed for the days when they would finally be friends. They were once, before well… everyone makes mistakes right? 

“You always seem to know how best to play situations like this so,yes… what do you think I should do?”

“W-Well,” Alucard stammered uncharacteristically, “I think you should beat them at their own game. I know that’s what I’d do. You’re many things Kell but I wouldn’t exactly call you a prize—I don’t mean that in a bad way. We all know I love Lila like a second sister, but even I’ll admit it’s a pretty rotten thing to do. You’re a person and at the very least you should be treated like one, or you know you should have the opportunity to bet on yourself for crying out loud…”

“So you’re saying I should…?”

“Enter yourself in and say you will not be swayed by some pretty words or kissing. You should tell them that you’re able to resist both of them for the time period they agreed upon. They can’t just try and kiss you, or whatever, it's their job to woo you, and if you are the one to initiate the contact, i.e. kissing, groping, etc... then you're the one who loses and they win.”

“Alright, and then what do I do _when not if _ I win?”

Alucard shrugged, “That would be up to you. But I dunno you could decide to publicly humiliate them, or I dunno, have neither of them or both, Take your pick. 

Before Kell could answer Rhy choked on his food, laughing, “Both? Oh please, Kell couldn’t have a threesome if his life depended on it.”

 “Excuse me?” Kell’s cheeks and ears burned, “What is that supposed to mean?”

 “It means you have much simpler tastes, Kell, you are a bit... weeeeeell, vanilla. Experienced, yes, but very vanilla. I mean seriously Kell, I remember what your “sneaking out” years were like, but even then it was always only one person at a time.” 

Kell’s cheeks were nearly the color of his hair, “Oh, is that right?” 

“Pause, Kell had "sneaking out" years?” Alucard asked. 

He was supremely interested in hearing what could be used as blackmail at best, or amazing/embarrassing stories that all featured Kell's former years at worst but was ultimately ignored. 

“Fine, you know what?” Kell said, pretty steamed, “I will bet you both that I when I win and that I will get Lila and Holland to have a threesome with me” 

“Bullshit, Kell, I agree with my favorite Maresh brother. You couldn’t do that if your life depended on it.” Alucard scoffed, but wanting desperately to know what Kell’s “sneaking out” years entailed, alas, mocking him was too hard to resist. 

“Then accept the bet,” Kell said shrugging nonchalantly. 

“Fine, what are the terms?” Alucard smirked with a raised brow. 

“Luc…” Rhy wanted Alucard to stop because Kell might not be so comfortable with having a threesome, especially with Lila and Holland. However, Rhy also knew that even if Kell wasn't comfortable with it, he'd still do it out of dumb pride or worse, spite.

“Terms Maresh.” 

Kell thought about it for a bit and smirked, “Well for starters, absolutely no more PDA! I don’t like seeing my brother being disheveled by you on a daily—no—hourly basis.”

“Okay, I can agree to that,” said Alucard

“Wasn’t finished,” Kell said quickly and Rhy shifted nervously in his seat. Alucard had created a monster. “This summer you will smuggle Rhy, and me on your fishing boat or whatever.”

“It’s a Catamaran.”

“It’s an expensive over-glorified sailboat, and you know it, anyway—Rhy and I had a trip planned years ago, but our parents wouldn’t ever let us take it unsupervised and that won’t be any fun at all. That’s where you come in. Not only would you be taking us, but you also wouldn’t get any perks of us being on our own, such as You and Rhy? No sex while I am on the ship.” 

 

Kell smirked. Alucard looked bewildered and Rhy, actually thought Kell’s terms were reasonable. No more PDA? That was actually something Rhy would be happy with, and no sex while they were on their trip? Eh, Rhy could live without it, besides there were other fun things they could do together. So without a second thought, Rhy readily agreed to the terms Kell had in place before Alucard could protest. 

“Deal,” Rhy grinned. 

“Deal!?” Alucard exclaimed who was still somewhat in shock Kell actually came up with some daunting terms. He turned his head and set his eyes on Rhy, “What do you mean deal!? We haven’t even discussed what exactly we would get when we win!” 

“Oh right,” Rhy blushed, “Kell you er have to be nice to Alucard for a month, even if Alucard insults you, and he gets 5 freebies per week.” 

Kell’s jaw dropped and Alucard burst at the seams with laughter. “Oh well now, _that_ is a bet I will gladly take. We good then Kell?” 

“Oh definitely, especially since I’m going to win,” Kell grinned as he got up and left Rhy’s room in favor of his own. 

 

~~~

 

Once Kell had closed the door behind him he blinked in disbelief… 

“What exactly had I been thinking?” he said to himself coming to grips with the predicament he now found himself in. Gods and magic, Kell had to craft a plan for how he was going to worm his way into Lila’s and Holland’s bet, just so he couldn't lose to Rhy’s tragically annoying boyfriend. 

_‘Their egos,’ he thought, ‘definitely egos, it was the quickest way to gather under both of their skin…’_ However Kell acknowledged one big problem… It was one thing to corner them, and make them let him into their ridiculous bet, but it was quite another to convince them to make them accept his terms. To share a bed with him, just how was he going to pull that off? 

“I mean, aside from the bet with Alucard… Why do I want both of them in bed with me, at the same time?” he sighed.

Rhy wasn’t being mean-spirited when he said Kell was vanilla, he was, and as Rhy further explained Kell, was certainly experienced. He was just very, _very_ vanilla… However, the idea of being the center of attention between the Lila and Holland… 

At first, when this whole thing began Kell found all of the attention to be overwhelming. He wasn’t Rhy, after all.

The thing about Rhy is... everyone had always looked at Rhy, and why wouldn’t they? Rhy was like the sun, beaming brightly, kind to everyone he would meet, and it just—it fit him. Rhy bathed in it and Kell hid from it. The whole thing set him on edge, it was nerve-wracking! Too much attention usually left Kell feeling extremely exposed but this was different. The idea had a hold over him he couldn’t quite put into words, it was driving him mad. There were only a handful of people Kell liked to have attention from, Rhy, Calla, Tieren, Barron, his parents and even then too much made him hide back into the shadows where it was comfortable, safe. Kell had to admit though, it was different with Holland and Lila…

Kell laid down on his bed trying to think about what changed between him and Holland. Maybe it was just the fact that Kell was done waiting. He was done being second fiddle and feeling unwanted. Not wanting attention was one thing but some days it seemed like Holland truly loathed him. Kell supposed it was time to take the hint so he stopped trying. Kell didn't get it, all he wanted at first was a friend.  Holland’s and Kell’s kind of magic was rare among sorcerers. The magic had scared him a bit at first, he had a hard time controlling it, Holland always had control. Kell wanted to learn he figured Holland wouldn’t have minded it, teaching Kell a few things. 

But then… Kell realized he had wanted more so much more, and Holland wasn’t that much older. All Kell wanted was to learn from Holland, about magic, about life, and even about love. It felt awful though when Kell realized he and Holland’s weird friendship was more like a tolerance on Holland’s end. He had finally come to terms with it, and that’s around the time when he started going out with Rhy to kiss anyone who would have him—and do more things with him, to him or have him do things to them. Ultimately, he just accepted that he’d never get a chance with Holland, only the simple tolerance Holland allotted him on a daily basis.

And then Lila came. 

Barron had always owned the Stone's Throw down the block from Rhy’s and Kell’s house—well more like a castle in a faerie tale than a house—see being the adopted son of King and Queen Maresh had its perks. He loved going to Barron’s and he went every week, sometimes he went every other day and why not? It’s not like he couldn’t afford it. 

Then one completely ordinary day, he walked in and there she was. Lila had come to stay with Barron after her mother passed. At first, she reminded him of Holland—well a little bit, except she was more? More was the best word he could think of.

More confident

More vivacious

More charming

More warmth

More flirtatious

More… Alive

She just was brimming with a kind of energy he knew Holland had inside of him somewhere, but she was braver about being herself and showing it every once in a while whereas Holland kept everything bottled away. 

Gods she could make his heart stop or hammer if she looked at him a certain way, those smoldering eyes, perpetual smirk and her raven black hair. He smiled to himself thinking about all the times she made him laugh. Really laugh, she made him feel like he didn’t need to be so guarded all of the time and he was exhilarated when she told him she felt the same. 

Then she told him about her powers, and how all she wanted was to learn how to use them properly. Now, where did that sound familiar? Having their kind of magic was difficult to live with. You always had to have a level of concentration and focus that other magic wielders didn’t need to have. 

You just have to deal with more… even when you don’t want to be, especially if you didn’t want to be.

It hadn’t been easy for her either.  

Lila had been brought up as everyone else though, not even a sorcerer, so when she started learning magic of her own volition. It was if she was a new star forming slowly and ready to shine brightly. It was unlike anything Kell had seen before. He almost felt appreciative, lucky even when she asked him for help in the same way he had “bothered” Holland. He was excited to teach her everything because that’s what he had wanted all those years ago. She wanted to learn everything, see everything and it felt good being there for her. 

Her magic gave her a sense of purpose, it filled her up with a joy that Kell had always had felt like a burden. She made magic fun again, she made his life lighter, he truly loved her for that. He didn’t know if anyone else could have been able to pull that out of him. Not even Rhy, and bless him he did try. Rhy was a different kind of support, a different kind of energy and life. Kell acknowledged daily how lucky he was to have Rhy for a brother.  

But where Lila was chaos, Holland was rigid. Kell supposed that he was somewhere in the middle, the balance in their little threesome, the bridge, the common ground.  

Upon that realization, he felt the corners of his mouth rise into a smile. He knew that when he would win, that he would want to be in the middle of them. (After all, he was the common ground.)  

Lila in front of him to symbolize his future, and Holland in the back for his past. The thought of being sandwiched between them, the thought of them giving him all of their undivided attention made his face flush with want. Who knows maybe having them both would finally be the thing to make them stop fighting. It was getting ridiculous, for crying out loud they were getting so keyed up that they had actually thrown knives at each other during their shift at the Stone's Throw the other day.

Who knows maybe they needed to lift their own tension, and he was more than happy to let them work their frustrations out on him. 

“Alright, this is the year that it stops. Alucard will be decent and I will be nicer to him… Rhy can have his adventure, Lila can be free, Holland will let his walls down, and I will get what I want.” Kell sighed to himself, feeling no shame as he combed his fingers through his hair with one hand and trailed his fingers down to the waist of his pants with the other. He kept moving his hand forward dipping under the waistband of his pants letting a soft moan escape his lips when his fingers wrapped around his shaft.

From then on Kell knew he wouldn’t be stopping. He let his imagination go wild appreciating each vivid image he painted for himself.  

He could see it, Holland entering him over and over biting his neck, being rough with him while trying desperately to control himself after being so wound up for so long. 

Lila would be no better, she would trail kisses up and down his jaw bone. In between kisses she would whisper lewd things, lines of the poem she taught him, or worst of all tease him by going over all of the spells and their meanings the way he did the first time he went down on her. 

Kell started pumping himself even faster, gripping his shaft firmly. 

Kell was on top of his bed, on top of his blanket, so if anyone decided to walk in they would see exactly what he was doing but at this point, he honestly did not care. In fact, if someone—well anyone but a family member or Alucard—entered he would probably beg for them to help him finish himself off.  

He moaned thinking about Lila, having her wrapping her legs all the way around Hollands hips to help push them all closer together. As much as he thought he wouldn’t have wanted to be the submissive partner in this scenario the more he was finding himself to be wrong. He was astounded by how much he wanted to be their little plaything, to be kissed, touched, and shared. 

He whimpered, because as close as he felt like he was on the verge of finishing, the further and further it seemed away. He wanted more. Needed more, but he was way too frustrated to stop and look around for lube. Instead, he whined and decided he’d just use his natural fluid for lubricant. He twirled his finger around his head coating it in as much precum as he could. Once he was satisfied he used his finger to enter himself stimulating his prostate whimpering Lila’s and Holland’s names over and over like a spell. 

When he _finally_ came he felt a wash of relief in his afterglow.

“Oh hells,” he panted heavily. “I really better win that bloody bet…” he sighed before cleaning himself and his bed up. 


End file.
